Grace Helbig
Grace Anne Helbig (born September 27, 1985) is an American comedian, actress and internet personality. She is best known for creating the My Damn Channel web series Daily Grace, being a correspondent on Attack of the Show! on the G4 network, and playing Idol (one of the main characters) on the web series MyMusic created by the Fine Brothers. Early Life Grace Anne Helbig was born on September 27, 1985 in South Jersey to John Helbig and Theresa McGinnis. Helbig has an older brother, John, and a younger brother, Timothy. She attended West End Memorial Elementary School in Woodbury, New Jersey and then Gateway Regional High School in Woodbury Heights, New Jersey. She was a successful track star and medal-winning pole-vaulter.In 2003, Helbig began studying at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. It was there that she formed a sketch comedy group called "Baked Goods" with her best friend, Michelle Akin (née Vargas). During her college years, she took improv classes at the Peoples Improv Theater in New York City. She was a semi-finalist in the 2005 Miss New Jersey USA beauty pageant. She graduated college with a BA in Contemporary Arts in 2007.In 2006, Helbig created the YouTube Channel "GracieHinABox". The Channel included vlogs, music videos and others. Career Helbig took six internships while at college, working in various media roles. She read scripts for the show Degrassi: The Next Generation and transcribed tapes for My Super Sweet Sixteen. ''My Damn Channel and Daily Grace In early 2008, Helbig narrated the short-lived animated web series, ''Bedtime Stories on My Damn Channel, which consisted of R-rated parodies of classic fairy tales. My Damn Channel founder and CEO Rob Barnett discovered her personal vlogs through her profile and offered her the opportunity to host her own video blog web series on My Damn Channel. This became Daily Grace, which premiered on April 14, 2008, with new episodes published every weekday. On October 11, 2010, Daily Grace was launched as its own YouTube channel. As of December 2013, the channel has over 2.3 million subscribers and over 208 million video views on YouTube. Since the series' inception in 2008 (and as of December 2013), Helbig has created nearly 830 Daily Grace ''episodes for her YouTube channel — in addition to the 690 ''Daily Grace episodes that were published exclusively on My Damn Channel (i.e. all episodes up to October 8, 2010 as well as additional extra videos after that date). From March 2012 through January 2013, Helbig hosted My Damn Channel LIVE once a week from the company's New York City studio (the remainder of each week's daily episodes were hosted by Beth Hoyt). In November 2013, the series was revived in a weekly format as My Damn Channel LIVE: Hangout, with Helbig making occasional appearances via video chat from the Los Angeles studio. On November 4, 2013, Helbig premiered a weekly supplemental Daily Grace series exclusive to My Damn Channel entitled One Thing You Didn't Know About Me From Last Week. ''TV Work In August 2009, Helbig played a supporting role in an episode of the short-lived Comedy Central TV series ''Michael and Michael Have Issues starring Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black. In early 2010, Helbig briefly appeared in a nationally televised commercial for Regus. During 2010–2011, she made several appearances as process server Byran McElderry's assistant Grace on the TruTV show All Worked Up. In December 2010, Helbig appeared as an extra in a sketch on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman. From spring 2011, Helbig appeared periodically on Attack of the Show! on the G4 network as both a co-host and a correspondent until the show's cancellation in 2013. In 2011–2012, she briefly appeared in a nationally televised commercial for Google Chrome. In April 2012, Helbig was featured in an episode of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice. In 2012–2013, she made a few appearances during the first and second seasons of the MTV game show Money From Strangers. In 2012–2013, she was the featured spokesperson in a series of nationally televised Lowe's commercials. In early 2013, she appeared in a few episodes of VH1's Best Week Ever. In October 2013, Helbig gave her first nationally televised interview on the MTV talk show Nikki & Sara Live. In November 2013, she was a panelist on the Comedy Central celebrity game show @midnight. In 2014, Helbig is set to appear in a second season episode of the Howie Mandel-produced prank game show Deal with It on TBS. ''Film Helbig was featured in the 2012 YouTube documentary Please Subscribe, alongside fellow YouTubers Hannah Hart, Mitchell Davis, Wheezy Waiter and others.Helbig is scheduled to appear in Corey Vidal and Shay Carl's upcoming documentary Vlogumentary along with other YouTubers, set for an early 2014 release. On August 2, 2013 Helbig announced on the main stage at VidCon 2013 that she would be starring in her first feature film alongside friends Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart. Camp Takota stars Helbig as a young woman who is forced to leave her big city job and head back to her old summer camp where she is reunited with old friends played by Hannah and Mamrie. The film, directed by the Brothers Riedell, began shooting in California on August 12, 2013. Currently in post-production, the film's target release date is set for January 2014. Other Work'' In 2011, Helbig co-hosted the monthly live late night stage show Morning Show with Jacob "Hobart" Brown.Helbig shoots and edits the web series You Deserve a Drink in collaboration with her good friend Mamrie Hart.In 2012, during the inaugural IAWTV Awards, Helbig met with the Fine Brothers. The two still needed to cast someone to play the role of Idol for their new web series MyMusic and during their meeting, they offered her the role. Helbig flew out to Los Angeles the next week to shoot the first season. Helbig subsequently appeared in the first seven episodes of the series' second season.Helbig has also appeared in the Fine Brothers' YouTubers React series.On January 15, 2013, Helbig participated on stage as part of "An Evening of Awesome" with John and Hank Green, Neil Gaiman, Hannah Hart, Ashley Clements and Daniel Vincent Gordh.On April 4, 2013, Helbig appeared on the season premier of TableTop hosted by Wil Wheaton on the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel.For the season finale of the hit web series The Most Popular Girls in School, she voiced Jeannie Halverstad, the abrasive show host of Cheer Nationals.During May, June and December 2013, Helbig (along with Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart) embarked on a live comedy show across America titled #NoFilterShow. It encouraged people to film and document the show and incorporated the use of social media by using internet comments and Twitter mentions in crowd games.On September 13, 2013, Helbig premiered her weekly web series Grace's Faces on beauty guru Bobbi Brown's newly created YouTube channel I love makeup. In February 2014, Helbig is scheduled to appear in the second season of AwesomenessTV's musical web series Side Effects. Throughout all of her content, Helbig has been a consistent advocate of the benefits of interracial dating between black males and white females, once stating that she dates black men almost exclusively.